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Jack Merridew's Leadership

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Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding creates his stance on fascist leadership and how it can negatively affect others who are inferior to their leader. Jack Merridew is a teenage boy who had been a leader of a school choir when the plane crashed down on the island, leaving many teenage boys stranded without adult supervision during the bombings of World War II. After a few days, all of the boys spread out on the island meet up for the very first time and they all vote for a leader. The majority of the boys vote for his peer Ralph, a boy of similar age, and Jack is not happy about this. Throughout the book, Jack tries to gain power over varying encounters, even if it means sacrificing other living things including boys on …show more content…

Golding explores that Jack loves to hunt and kill pigs while on the island. Jack does this in a gruesome fashion and upon putting it to death ,“[Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling" (Golding 64). The use of imagery provides a sense of the harsh reality of what is happening to Jack as he is losing the civility he had arrived with every day. Throughout his evolution process, he has gotten to a point where Piggy claims,“I’m scared of him” (Golding 93) and that when he sees Jack, he feels that “it’s like asthma an’ you can’t breathe” (Golding 93). These words from a wise young boy, Piggy, are very concerning relating to the amount of civility Jack has left in him. As the civilized boys fear Jack every second of the day, Piggy and Ralph have a discussion and want to “ keep on the right side of him, anyhow. You can’t tell what he might do” (Golding 175). At this point, one of their fellow members, Simon, has already been put to death by Jack’s tribe and now the boys have to fear for their lives because of the unknown status of Jack at any time. Golding uses this type of language to represent fear in their voices because it is one of a leader 's most powerful tools for controlling a society. Jack teaches acts of killing and savagery of humans and other living animals, draining out every last ounce of civility the boys had upon their

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Rhetorical Device Analysis The book Lord of the Flies is an amazing novel written by William Golding about a group of boys who have to survive alone on an island due to a plane crash. The boys gather on the island and make a plan to be rescued. They establish rules and vote for a chief, Ralph, one of the older boys on the island, wins to the other candidate Jack. After weeks of being on the island, the boys start becoming unproductive and miss the chance of being saved by a ship.

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William Golding’s Lord of the Flies depicts many different types of authority. Despite the fact that Piggy has the potential to gain authority, only Jack and Ralph have authority over the boys in the novel. Although they both have authority, Jack and Ralph rule as chief in very different ways. Ralph rules through order while Jack rules through fear, and a system of reward and punishment. Golding shows that authority based on desire and fear always triumphs over authority based on order and reason.

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The mental degradation of Jack, his hunters, and several other boys helps to demonstrate how civilization is only a veneer masking man 's inborn savagery. Originating as an angelic choir boy, one might struggle to believe that Jack Merridew is the first boy to begin the slippery slope into savagery. It all starts when Jack, in an attempt to have a successful hunt, applies red and white clay to his face. This fateful application becomes a mask with which Jack hides all of his fears and insecurities behind, and in doing so, Jack takes the first step in becoming a savage. As time progresses, increasing acts of terror (such as torturing a mother pig and slaughtering one of their fellow boys) push Jack further from humanity until he is a complete

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Piggy is fat, brilliant, lacking in social graces, and wears glasses, in other words the outsider on this island. Due to Piggy being such an foreigner, Jack feels that he is above Piggy, and feels better when he causes Piggy pain and sorrow. For example, “‘You’re talking too much,’ said Jack Merridew. ‘Shut up Fatty,’” (21). In this scene you can see power in Piggy’s lack thereof.

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Throughout Lord of The Flies, written by William Golding, a group of young boys who crash land on the island start off as innocent and peaceful people, some even Catholics. But as everyone's inner demons arose, all hope for civilization was lost and the boys descended into chaos. With this chaos came their loss of morals, values, and laws. Examples of these were when Jack disobeyed Ralph's rules, when Simon was brutally stabbed to death by Jack's group and how the story portrays Jack as starting from a Catholic choir boy to turning into the "devil" of the island. Starting with the loss of laws, at first Ralph was elected leader because he was seen as the most fit and strongest compared to everyone else.

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In the novel, Lord Of The Flies, by William Golding, Ralph’s caring and consoling character and Jack’s determination and self confidence both allowed them to confront challenges successfully. Ralph displayed the quality of kindness toward the others group members when they first arrived on the island. He understood all of the different inner emotions that the boys were experiencing and knew how they felt. Many of the children were worried whether they they would every come home again.

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Responsibility in Leadership: How Jack Rose to Power in Lord of the Flies Lord of the Flies is a dystopian novel by William Golding and published in 1954, shortly after the end of World War II. The novel follows the ventures of a group of British boys stranded on an island and seeks to address the root cause of the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph represents order and civilized society, while Jack represents Hitler and his fascist regime. Ralph’s shortfall lies in his myopic point of view, developed by his father’s influence. His lack of foresight in his leadership role results in the neglect of critical responsibilities, poor decision-making and a weak society, which then allows for the rise of Jack’s fascist regime.

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In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys on the island choose a leader for the group. The main choices are Ralph and Jack, who both show good leadership qualities. However, despite Jack’s advantages, Ralph would be the more qualified leader due specific traits, such as his assessment of others, priorities and selflessness. One of Ralph’s strengths is that he assesses others’ strengths and goes to them for assistance when making decisions.

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After the boys have a similar thought. “Half-relieved, Half-daunted by the implication of further terrors, the savages murmured again,” (161). Here, the boys are relieved by what Jack has told them even if they are aware of their actions. The boys have an implication of terror because of both Jack and the Beast. Jack uses Simon’s death to bring him more power and manipulate the boys under his power with fear.

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Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a novel that revolves around the concept of civilization versus savagery. The boys argue about points that eventually split the boys amongst themselves. These disputes come up multiple times over the course of the novel. One of which being the fight over the leader of the boys. Some believed the leader should be Jack while others believed it should be Ralph.

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Leadership Abuse in Lord of the Flies The famous 17th century poet Jean de la Fontaine once said “Anyone entrusted with power will abuse it if not also animated with the love of truth and virtue, no matter whether he be a prince, or one of the people.” When the children in Lord of the Flies find themselves stranded on a distant island with no adults to be found, they encounter many forms of power, hence encountering many forms of abuse of power as well. This power abuse can be organized by the two leaders who each ruled the island during their own periods. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding utilizes these leaders, Ralph and Jack, to illustrate how people in positions of power will abuse their power for personal gain when given the opportunity.

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In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Ralph and Jack compete to have the title of chief, this illustrates Golding's message that in society dictatorship can be more successful than democracy. Characters in this novel resemble people in WWII. Jack is a symbol of dictatorship and Ralph is a symbol of democracy. Though in the beginning of the novel Ralph had control, Jacks dictatorship caused him to take total control. Between the two boys Jack is the more successful leader.

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431 Words | 2 Pages

As the novel develops, the boys are left to their own devices and morals to survive on the island. Golding implies that when this happens, people naturally revert to cruelty, savagery and a human evil that he believes is in everyone. When Jack kills the mother pig, he is in great triumph over outwitting a living thing. This shows that he has become a savage through his time on the island, and his inner evil has taken over him. It also shows that Jack has become more violent over time, as if killing pigs is normal to him.

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794 Words | 4 Pages

A prime example of this is when Jack says, “He’s like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn’t a proper chief.” This act of cruelty was designed to motivate the boys of the island to reject Ralph as their leader. By comparing Ralph to Piggy, Jack tries to manipulate people into thinking he would be an exemplary leader.

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1042 Words | 5 Pages

Through examination of Lord of the Flies, Golding seems to share this point of view. When left in an environment lacking authority, the boys attempt to follow the fundamental rule of nature, electing Ralph as their leader and for a time, following his rules. However, when another boy desired the same position, competition arose and Ralph was revealed to be less powerful and disrespected by the group. Jack found his power in feeding off the other boys’ fears, and using violent, animalistic techniques, which proved to be what they truly desired. War broke out between the two, as Hobbes predicted would happen in such circumstances, and morality was only restored when a powerful figure of authority finally arrived on the island.

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